Egypt makes polio vaccination certificate mandatory for travellers from Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Egypt has made polio vaccination certificate mandatory for travellers from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other countries, ARY News reported on Monday.

As per the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), passengers travelling to Egypt from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malawi, Mozambique and Congo are requested to provide an international certificate of vaccination specifically polio vaccine, OPV or IPV.

Earlier, Four environmental samples from Peshawar and Karachi tested positive for wild poliovirus 1 (WPV1), ARY News reported on Thursday quoting a health department official.

As per the Pakistan Polio Laboratory at the National Institute of Health, the samples were collected from neighbourhoods of Shaheen Muslim Town and Naray Khuwar, Peshawar and Keamari, Karachi in the month of August.

An official said: “As many as three samples were collected from Peshawar, and one sample was collected from District Karachi in the Keamari area.”

As many as 21 positive environmental samples have been reported across Pakistan this year – including ten from Peshawar and two from Karachi – while two children were paralyzed by wild polio.

A poliovirus was found for the second time in the Rawalpindi district on September 2, during a sewage sampling carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

According to an official of the District Health Authority, the polio virus was found in a sample collected from a nullah at Safdarabad near Pirwadhai.

He said the sewage sample from Safdardabad was collected on August 10 and the virus was stated to be genetically linked to the YB3A cluster, which is active in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, as per ARY News.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization in a recent report said that the risk of the international spread of poliovirus still remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). There are no travel restrictions in Pakistan as of now.

The risk of the international spread of Wild Poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Africa is based on many factors.

"The ongoing transmission in eastern Afghanistan with cross border spread into Pakistan" marks one of the reasons for polio spread in Pakistan, according to the report. Adding to this, the committee noted the large pool of unvaccinated ‘zero dose’ children in southern Afghanistan constitutes an ongoing risk of WPV1 re-introduction into the southern region.

"Sub-optimal immunization coverage was achieved during campaigns in southeastern Africa, in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, meaning there may be insufficient population immunity to halt transmission," the report added.